The present invention generally relates to needle counter devices used in surgery, and more specifically relates to a needle counter device which includes an adhesive disposed in one or more troughs for receiving and retaining sharps (i.e., needles, blades, etc.) during surgery.
It is important to account for and safely retain for disposal, all suture needles used in a surgical procedure. Since the quantity of needles used for any given surgical procedure can vary widely, several needles may need to be accounted for and each must be accounted for to assure none is left in the patient or in the surgical drapes, bed sheets or lost elsewhere. This protects the patient, the surgical and nursing staff as well as cleaning and laundry personnel. Scalpel blades may also be retired or changed out during procedures and thus become a hazard unless they too are accounted for. The potential for presence of blood born pathogens on these contaminated sharp objects makes their safekeeping essential so they can be disposed of at minimal risk.
Numerous needle counting device concepts already exist. Methods used to retain the sharps include use of soft penetrable foam strips, magnetic sheets, thin film adhesives, foam backed film adhesives, “piggy bank” type receiving slots and various combinations of these items. Many of these devices date back more than 30 years. Many of the devices are contained within a variation of a hinged plastic box form that opens and closes like a book. Various methods have been employed to latch or lock the box closed. Often the sharps receiving section of the needle counter is divided into numbered sections for needle placement in order to facilitate the counting process. From the user standpoint, improved means to assure and facilitate accurate counting of these needles and prevent accidental dislodgement has become more important in recent years, especially as the average age and general shortage of nursing staff means that the declining quality of the users eyesight and their need to be more efficient come into conflict.
Some examples of prior art devices can be found in U.S. Pat. No. 3,944,069 (Pressure sensitive adhesive coated foam pad); U.S. Pat No. 4,008,802 (Resilient pad with raised ridges for receiving needles); U.S. Pat No. 4,013,109 (Hinged container with magnetic surface to hold needles); U.S. Pat No. 4,243,140 (Hinged container with slotted foam ribs on one side and a thin adhesive layer on the other to hold sharps); and U.S. Pat No. 4,596,329 (Combinations of foam and magnetic media to retain sharps).
Needle counters are very much a commodity item in the health care field and as such must be made inexpensively and sold cheaply in order to compete. Recent OSHA emphasis and legislation directed toward safe handling methods and systems for contaminated sharps to prevent transfer of diseases by blood born pathogens has directed more attention upon user friendliness and ease of use of these devices. Soft foam pads require that the often curved suture needles be impaled into or through them. Some foam pads are slotted to receive the needles within their slots. Magnetic sheets are sometimes used to hold the needles. Some hybrid concepts have a thin adhesive film applied to a foam pad wherein the pad may be impaled with the needle or the needle or sharp may be retained by the adhesive on contact.
All these devices do their job with varying degrees of success: 1) The foam devices generally provide very little grip and often fail to retain needles against very low dislodging forces unless they are made of an elastomeric foam and then they require a rather high insertion force in order to deliver a high pull-out force. 2) Magnets hold the low carbon stainless needles with some degree of success but the needles typically dislodge very easily and can be pushed around and disorganized or knocked loose if even slightly disturbed. Occasionally the sharps can become magnetized from contact with the magnetic sheet whereupon they may tend to move from their assigned location and clump together which makes counting difficult, especially when very fine needles are involved. Some surgeons complain that the magnetized needles tend to attract to the needle holder forceps and become difficult to handle. Magnetic sheets are also costly and they are generally dark in color so they fail to provide good visual contrast for observing the shiny metal needles. 3) Thin film adhesive surfaces are not very compliant and therefore limited in effectiveness by the amount of surface area of the sharps they can attach to. Backing thin film adhesives with a foam pad helps assist in utilization of the adhesive but remain far from an ideal solution since the film membrane also tends to inhibit insertion of needles into the foam. Many devices have also employed an adhesive on their bottom in order to secure the device to a work surface and prevent movement during use.